OPINION
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Why we need another Bob Marley
Bob Marley died more than three decades ago, yet he is still a strong cultural and musical influence. We explore why the singer affects millions of people across the world to this day.
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Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti was a teacher, political campaigner, women's rights activist and traditional aristocrat in Nigeria. She was seen as the doyenne of female rights in Nigeria, gaining her the moniker "Lioness of Lisabi" for her political activism. However, like many other female leaders, her contributions and legacy has been muted.
Ethiopia is a storytelling nation in which Emperor Tewodros has a special place.
Despite an abundance of food when production conditions are favourable, the intermittent supply of power and poor storage facilities often mean that staple foods such as vegetables and fruit are lost after being harvested. Two African entrepreneurs are working to curb this waste.
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The Benin Empire was one of the oldest and most highly developed states in west Africa, dating back to the 11th century. The walls of Benin City and its surrounding kingdom were a man-made marvel described as “the world’s largest earthworks prior to the mechanical era”.
“Freshwater”, the debut novel of non-binary Nigerian author Akwaeke Emezi, is a book that tackles multiplicity in an autobiographical account of the author’s reality and identity. “I am a village full of faces and a compound full of bones, translucent thousands.”
“Sexual cleansing” is a common harmful practice in several African countries where a woman is expected to have sex after her first period, after becoming widowed, or after an abortion, as a cleansing ritual. In Malawi, girls are forced to have sex with a paid sex worker, known as a “hyena”, once they reach puberty.
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- sex & relationships
- New in Sex & Relationships
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Seeking to mainstream the often othered narratives of queer women and non-binary persons “Dark Juices and Aphrodisiacs” is an anthology that explores the sensual lives of queer Africa. Using some well-known and some new voices from across the continent, the anthology opens up a new outlook on pleasure.
More than half the world is online, with the numbers growing every day. People are increasingly spending every second of their existence on the World Wide Web, yet we are still uncomfortable with saying that is where the bae came from. Kagure Mugo wonders why.
For the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, Nana Akosua Hanson argues that the problem of sexual harassment in schools is rooted in patriarchy and that there is an urgent need for a complete overhaul of how we educate our children on matters of sex and relationships.
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The decriminalisation of the private use of cannabis in South Africa could – and should – pave the way for the decriminalization of sex work, says Zanta Nkumane.
Pegging is not high on heterosexual couples’ list of things to do in bed, but maybe it should be. The act of trying something new and subverting gender roles in the sack can lead to increased pleasure and healthy conversations for both parties.
When people hear the term “sex positivity”, they think it is about having sex with everyone all the time, or having sex in wild and messy ways. In fact, sex positivity is about having a healthy and fulfilling sex life – no matter what that looks like, says Kagure Mugo.
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- New in Investigative
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Ethiopia's teff plant is gluten-free and demand is growing. The country needs to upgrade its harvesting to reap the rewards.
Nigeria's higher education system is the biggest on the continent but it lags behind on research output
Nigeria, like many emerging countries, needs to educate its women at the same rate it does its men to enhance entrepreneurship.
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Demonstrations against the current regime have opened up a space for debate and self-expression in Algeria, recalling the crucial need for a free and involved civil society.
The Asmara-Addis Literary Festival was the first of its kind between Ethiopian and Eritrean writers. The festival was held in Belgium. Find out more about the founder Sulaiman Addonia, who brought together great writers from the continent, and writers who attended the festival.
Increasingly, African cities are being covered in litter, dumpsites and mounds and mounds of garbage, the majority of which is plastic. Given the environment’s turn for the worse, it is time for us to analyse our personal contribution to waste management.
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- New in Interviews
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This is Africa spoke to Ekene Odigwe, one of the makers of a film aimed at raising awareness of the fight against Female genital mutilation (FGM).
When a deputy headmaster at one of Zimbabwe’s top schools recently came out as gay, he faced a backlash that revealed a deep-seated homophobia. One Zimbabwean decided to stand up – and out – in support of the LGBTQI+ community in general and GALZ in particular.
Some of the things we discard - like urine - can actually be useful resources.
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Turning prisons into a market opportunity could open them up to corruption.
Future Africa Forum founder and Zimbabwean entrepreneur Gerald Chirinda says the future is African. As Africa's story changes, young people from the continent have the responsibility to get involved in changing the narrative.
Foreign shop-owners in South Africa are accused of selling counterfeit food and food beyond its sell-by date. These claims are driven by politically charged opinions, not evidence.
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- New in Trending
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US district Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the New York federal court has dismissed a lawsuit by Namibia’s Herero and Nama tribes seeking reparations from Germany for the genocide of their ancestors.
Locks of hair belonging to the widely revered Ethiopian emperor Tewodros II will be repatriated after a request from Addis Ababa, the National Army Museum in the United Kingdom has announced.
The United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prize, the Women's Prize for Fiction, announced its 2019 longlist. The judging panel managed to whittle down the 163 entries to 16 amazing authors, three of which are Nigerian.
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Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 was in the air for six minutes before it crashed on 10 March 2019. Among the souls it took with it was the acclaimed and highly regarded Nigerian-born academic, writer and opinion-maker Prof Pius Adesanmi, a public intellectual who loved his country and continent fiercely. TIA pays tribute.
An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 passenger jet, flight number ET 302 has crashed on a flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Ethiopian Airlines confirmed. 149 passengers and 8 crew are believed to have been onboard the flight, and are feared dead
Rwanda has embraced technology and is now preparing its young population for the future by launching a coding academy. The school's motto "born to code" encourages young people interested in coding to pursue it as a career. The academy focusses on cyber security and software programming, and 30 girls and 30 boys enrolled in the first intake.
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